After last fall's tumultuous, bitterly partisan debt ceiling and government shutdown fights, a sense of fiscal fatigue seems to be setting in among many Washington policymakers as President Barack Obama prepares for his fifth State of the Union address later this month.

A political maverick nicknamed "Dr. No" for his favorite vote, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn was more than a bomb-thrower during his decade in the U.S. Senate _ he also earned a reputation as a statesman willing to reach across the aisle to come up with solutions to the nation's budget woes.

The resumption of commercial horse slaughter in the U.S. was blocked Friday as President Barack Obama signed a budget measure that withholds money for required federal inspections of the slaughtering process.